While you might have a pretty good idea of what to expect out of your team throughout the season prior to the start, how the team will come out and play in the first game is always a mystery. The Drexel women's basketball team opened their season on the road on Sunday afternoon at American University. The Dragons dropped their first game 74-65.
The women return several key components from last year's 18-12 team, including preseason Player of the Year Gabriela Marginean. With that said, they did have four seniors to replace. The Dragons got off to a slow start. They struggled with turnovers against the American press defense and also played poor defense on the other end of the court. About midway through the half, they found themselves is a hole that they'd be forced to climb out of throughout the remainder of the afternoon.
Drexel had no answer for American's duo Michele Kirk and Liz Lear. Jen Starnstrom, making just her fourth career start, struggled both on defensely and offensively (0-2 shooting and 3 turnovers) at the center position. Talented sophomore guard Jasmina Rooseel started off on fire from the outside, but turned the ball over four times and didn't play well on the defense end either. She was also in foul trouble through most of the game and that limited her minutes. Drexel tried to slow American down on the inside by inserting 6-4 Brook Cornish into the lineup. The struggles continued though for the Dragons as the stumbled into the locker room down 38-23.
Things weren't much better at the start of the second half. Drexel finally got it going with a lineup that included three freshmen, Kamile Nacickaite, Tyler Hale and Marisa Crane. All three brought energy and aggressive defense to the table. Kamile showed her fantastic all around skill set as she shot the ball, drove to the hoop, set up teammates and rebounded. Crane's quick ball handling helped Drexel break the American press. Hale brought effort and activity on both ends for the floor.
The Dragons eventually cut the score to 48-46 before youth got the better of them. They went back to turning the ball over as they had in the first half and had some breakdowns defensively too. The sharper American team was too much to overcome.
While the play of the freshmen was key to keeping Drexel in it for awhile, Marginean was really the catalysis as usual on the offensive end. The star player carried her teammates on her back during that second half run. Despite facing constant double and triple teams, Gabi still managed to score 22 second half points. Even though she had a great game, she uncharacteristically missed 3 or 4 shots from point blank range and that really could've help the Dragons even more in their comeback bid.
One of the big questions coming into this season was how deep this team would be. You never know what to expect from the incoming freshmen until they take the court. The three rookies far exceeded expectations in their debut. That said, they also still made youthful mistakes which cost this team in the end. This squad should only get better as they become more seasoned.
Drexel certainly looks deep at the SF and PF spots. Marginean was a known commodity there, but the play of Nacickaite and Hale should give them a solid rotation (although Marginean won't leave the court much) and flexibilty. Surprisingly absent from that spot was do everything senior forward, Nicole Hester. She has been slowed by injury during the preseason and appeared out of shape in her 12 minutes on the floor. When she works her way back into condition, Dragons forward positions could be downright scary.
The other achilles heal for the Dragons over the last few years has been ball handling and more specifically breaking the full court press. Andrea Peterson had a 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio in the game, but still seemed a bit slow after coming back from a knee injury. Marisa Crane was effective beating the American press when she was inserted into the game, but she needs to improve her decisioning making as was evident by her four turnovers. The turnovers were nearly even in the end, but American's 22-4 advantage in fast break points was the difference in the game.
Drexel is much better at beating the press when Gabi handles the ball, but often they don't look to her to do so until they've turned the ball over several times. The other issue is that even when they successfully break the press, the Dragons rarely convert for easy baskets. Often they waste a lot of time in the backcourt and don't even get into their offensive sets until the shot clock is winding down.
It wasn't a pretty start for the Drexel women, but if last year taught us anything it's that you can't count this team out early. A slow start didn't hinder the team as in 2007-2008 as they still finished 18-12. If they want to improve upon that though, they're going to have to make adjustments in the areas that have hurt them in the past.
Record Watch
Marginean came into her junior campaign just over 800 points shy of the career scoring mark. A running tally of her single season and career total will be posted on here throughout the season.
Gabriela Marginean
Season Points to Date: 31 (31 ave.)
Career Points: 1,116 (13th all time)
Michelle Maslowski
Single Season Points Record: 625
Career Points Record: 1,900
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